Fifteen singers from the Jan. 31 Creston’s Best Singer quarterfinal will move on to the semifinal round on Feb. 14 — Kelly Mehrer, Lexi Ducharme, Will Ralston, Brad Sutherland, Monica Blackmore, Morgan Benty, Laryssa Pugh, Ben Lansing, Victoria Bowns, Nora Blackmore, Teresa Rohbock, Matt Hansen, Cara Waddle, Wanda Powell and Frances Collison.
They will be joined in the semifinal by the 14 and under competition top three Marybeth Stenhouse, Jenna Leduc and Erin Collison, who were announced in the Jan. 24 Advance. Fourth- and fifth-place competitors Tyler Hoeve and Taya Blackmore from that night will also move on — when only 19 adult singers registered for the quarterfinal, producer Vern Gorham changed his plans.
“The original plan was to take the top 17 adults and the top three youth,” he said. “But I decided to give a couple of younger singers a chance.”
Also competing in the first adult night were Daryl Collison, Justin Lysohirka and Caleb Siggers. Kyran Grant, who placed in the top five in the 2012 edition, was unavailable to compete in the semifinal, although audience voting would have allowed him to move on.
The audience will vote again in the semifinal at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at Prince Charles Theatre, when the top 10 are chosen to advance to the final contest. Winners will be published in the Feb. 21 Advance.